Preview of Republican Strategy Courtesy of Texas

 A few things have been going on during out primary season. For my non-American friends, primary season is probably VERY different for your political seasons. I will explain the differences after the jump. But first, Pennsylvania - candidate (crazy), Missouri - candidate (crazier), Texas Republican platform - scariest - hopefully craziest.

Mastriano parroting his chief backer's line.

The actual Republican Candidate for Governor of Pennsylvania - Doug Mastriano - is running on the platform below. Remember he has already WON his primary.

• Arming school workers and teachers to "end" school violence
• Overturning the 2020 election. He has stated that Joe Biden stole the election and Trump should have won. Not only did he participate the Jan 6th rebellion at the Capital, he rented buses to bring other to the rally and subsequent rebellion.
• What is generally called (by Democrats) as "Christian Nationalism". He does not believe in the speration of church and state. He believes religious freedom allows Americans to: outlaw abortion, demand prayer in class, outlaw books that don't conform to a (i.e. his) Christian Worldview, discriminate against gay people and legislate against transgender students.
• Denying abortion rights to anyone, ever.

Eric Greitens gives hunting licenses for nontraditional Republicans on his website.

But wait, it gets worse. Right now in Missouri the former governor and current candidate, Eric Greitens, has released a campaign ad that takes Mastriano's Christian Nationalism and raises him violence. And Eric's violence is not just against Democrats. He is targeting RINOs (Republican In Name Only). And, by targeting, I mean that in the ad he little breaks down the door of a RINOs' house joined with tactical military team. After they break the front door, they all race in with assault weapons drawn to kill the RINO candidate. You don't see that as Greitens turns (with his AR15) and says that he will offer "RINO Hunting" permits that allow you to kill as many of these "false republicans" as you can.By the by, ex-Gov Greitens was forced out of office before due to an assault on his wife and allegations of child abuse. Nice guy with an AK47. Now I think his ad is just trying to get free press, but it is still chilling.

A Texas Republican Convention and Wet Dream

But wait, Texas beats all in the crazy department, while giving us a glimpse of the future.

The Texas Republican Platform was defined. This is a document that defines base level of political goals voted by Texas Republicans. It lays out what all Texan Republican Candidates must support. So this is NOT a way to generate press, this is the Official Texas Party line:

• Joe Biden was not elected fairly and Trump won 2020 election.
• Their current Senator (John Cornyn) is wrong for working towards gun safety laws (even though nothing has been agreed to).
• Texas reasserts it right to succeed from the Union United States.
• Reasserts that they hate gays with this plank, “Homosexuality is an abnormal lifestyle choice,” the platform document reads. “We believe there should be no granting of special legal entitlements or creation of special status for homosexual behavior, regardless of state of origin."

Now the Texas Republican Party is the largest state party in the nation. (California is a larger state in population, but a much smaller % of Republicans.) And this platform will be the starting point for the national platform. When challenged on this, the Texas Republicans accurately said that the Texas Platform represents the values of the party and was created and passed from the grass-roots members that attended. All were passed with large majorities of the voters.

For non-Americans a little about primaries. 

In the United States the party big-shots used to nominate the candidates for office. Since the 1960s, every state has moved to some sort of primary where the voters (in that party) vote for the candidate they want to represent them. The original idea was to enable the voters to choose the candidate that represents their views in the general election.

These primaries are anywhere from 7 to 3 months before the general election in non-Presidential years (2014, 2018, 2022, 2026 etc.) Primaries occur even earlier in Presidential years. Far from choosing the best candidates, party members normally choose a very partisan candidate. Which is one reason our legislature is sooo broken. The craziest Republicans and Democrats are nominated by the most partisan of voters (usually on 10 - 20% of party members vote in primaries - much lower than general elections (those are the "real" or final elections after the primaries).

 So the election is often between a crazy Republican and a crazy Democrat. There are ways to fix this we can talk about later. California, Alaska and Maine all have different primary methods.